10 Essential Med-Surg Mnemonics for your NCLEX Prep

Schizophrenia affects about 0.7% of the population and is characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and emotional deficits. Common positive symptoms include hallucinations, bizarre delusions, and disorganized speech and thought. Negative symptoms are above and as follows. Affective flattening means a having a glazed or frozen expression with few emotions. Anhendonia is an inability to experience pleasure in normal activities. Apathy is a state of indifference or learned helplessness. Attention problems refers to their disorganized thoughts or inability to focus on a task.2. DRIP = Causes of acute and reversible forms of urinary incontinenceD: Delirium or dementiaR: Restricted mobility, retentionI: Infection (especially elderly), impaction (fecal)P: Polyuria, pharmaceuticals

Acute incontinence can happen even in the young or middle aged by a variety of reasons as listed above. Some common causes could be delirium/dementia from possible infection or drug use. Restricted mobility or retention due to trauma, cancer, or kidney stones. Infection especially urinary tract infection can cause this but other infections as well such as people acutely ill from a pneumonia may develop incontinence secondary to their temporary inability to self-care. Constipation can cause pressure on the bladder and lead to incontinence, especially in children. Disease causing polyuria such as diabetic onset or taking various pharmaceuticals that have it as a side-effect can cause incontinence. This usually resolves with treatment of underlying conditions or discontinuing the medication.

Hyperthyroidism is a overactive thyroid causing excessive thyroid hormone to circulate. The most common form is Graves Disease. Too much thyroid hormone causes increase metabolism and speeds up the sympathetic nervous system. Think of it resembling an overdose of adrenaline or caffeine and you will picture the clinical symptoms as above.

4. CAGE = alcohol use screening for intake

C: Have you ever felt it necessary to CUT DOWN on your drinking?
A: Has anyone ever told you they were ANNOYED by your drinking?
G: Have you ever felt GUILTY about your drinking?
E: Have you ever felt the need to have a drink in the morning for an EYE OPENER?

You may be familiar with this but it actually is a validated scale for asking about alcoholism. It is to be used as a screening tool and not to be diagnostic of alcoholism. Essentially the answers you get during the screening can alert a clinician to have more of a conversation with the patient and figure out whether or not alcoholism is a concern/diagnosis.

O=Onset of pain. when did it start?P=Palliative or provocative factors for the pain. What makes it better or worse?Q=Quality of pain. Does it burn, dull, ache, stab etc…R=Region affected. Where is it?S=Severity of pain. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worse, what number is your pain?T=Timing/duration. When does your pain start and how long does it last?

This is a common set of questions for nurses to ask to assess pain. Although the severity is important. If a patient has pain, it is necessary to assess what could be causing it in order to provide nursing interventions and provide a good report to an attending.

Wound care is an essential part of medical surgical nursing. Here are the essential parts to any wound charting/assessment that is done on admission, at onset of first wound assessment, or when caring for a wound.

These are all common reasons for acute abdominal pain that would come in handy for patients being screened in an emergency room setting or who develop these symptoms on your floor while an inpatient.

8. 7As = Causes of Hyperkalemia

Artifact

Aldosterone antagonist

Addison’s disease

Acidosis

ACE inhibitors

Angiotensin receptor blocker

Anti-inflammatory

These are all good things to think about when you get that high potassium draw back at 5am. Is it a poor lab draw caused by a traumatic stick (artifact)? Is is related to a medication that is an aldosterone antagonist? Is the patient developing Addison’s disease (chronic adrenal insufficiency) from stopping steroids too quickly. Is is a result of acidosis? Is the patient on an ACE inhibitor causing electrolyte imbalance? Is there kidney function impairment by either an angiotensin blocker or a kidney disease? Or is it the result of anti-inflammatory reaction or medication?

9. DIG FAST = Symptoms of Mania

Distractibility

Indiscretion or excessive involvement in pleasurable activities

Grandiosity

Flight of ideas

Activity increase

Sleep deficit (decreased need for sleep)

Talkativeness (pressured speech)

Mania can be a symptom of bipolar disorder. It can also result from prescribed medicine use or from illicit drug use. These are the common symptoms and one typically has to exhibit multiple symptoms to be diagnosed with mania.

There can be non-GI causes of vomiting and these are a few of the causes above. This is important to note that not every patient with emesis that you take care of has typical gastroenteritis and to know the complexity of the differential with these patients.